From 21 to 30 July 2023, Cape Town Opera (CTO) will present Tosca, Puccini’s powerful opera, to Johannesburg audiences at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Braamfontein before moving to the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town from 12 to 17 September 2023. The highly anticipated grand-scale production will be directed by CTO’s
An enchanting operatic production of Cinderella will come to life in the upcoming winter school holidays in a spectacular family-friendly production at the Artscape Opera House from 4 to 8 July 2023. Presented by Cape Town Opera (CTO) in association with AM Productions, the South African premiere of this brand-new adaptation of
This May, Cape Town Opera (CTO) will present George Bizet’s masterful French opera The Pearl Fishers at Artscape, with an all-star cast led by Bel canto tenor Levy Sekgapane in his debut as Nadir. Sekgapane is one of South African opera’s great success stories. Together with Pretty Yende,
On the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas’ birth, multi-award-winning South African actor Sandra Prinsloo will be taking on the role of the iconic singer in Cape Town Opera’s Master Class. From 20 February to 11 March 2023, Pieter Toerien in association with Cape Town Opera (CTO) will present Master Class at
Cape Town Opera presents One in Three from 25 November to 11 December 2022, a compilation of powerful opera and play extracts aiming to raise awareness of gender-based violence. One in Three, which takes its name from the proportion of women and girls who experience abuse in
After Cape Town Opera’s recent sold-out season of L’elisir d’amore, the company’s next highly anticipated production will be George Frideric Handel’s Alcina, taking place at the Artscape Theatre this November. A collaboration between Cape Town Opera and the UCT Opera School, the sublime, fantastical opera is guest-directed by one
Every so often, when the new line-up of the Cape Town Opera is announced, one cannot help feeling envious and somewhat deprived living in Gauteng, a place where so very few opera productions happen. But now, there is a great opportunity for opera fans taking
Competition closed (the winners have been contacted). Proudly sponsored by the Judith Neilson Head Trust, Cape Town Opera, in collaboration with Sempre Opera and Roodepoort Theatre, presents Mozart’s famous masterpiece, Le Nozze di Figaro at the Roodepoort Theatre from 6 to 15 July 2022. The production forms
Across the world, from Cape Town to Kabul and London to Beijing, the arts are being silenced. Covid-19, conflict, censorship, loss of funding, displacement – even natural disasters – are seeing to it that the volume is being turned down on one of humanity’s driving
Following Cape Town Opera’s run of La rondine, a new production of La bohème begins at The Artscape, with performances taking place on 25, 27, and 28 November. This much-loved opera will be brought to life by seven well-known South African opera singers: Lukhanyo Moyake
As this challenge-fraught year of 2021 nears its end, and some respite is afforded the beleaguered performing arts in the wake of the Covid pandemic, Cape Town Opera will gladden the hearts of opera-lovers with two fully staged productions of works by Puccini in November.
Cape Town Opera’s new production of La rondine is coming to The Artscape, with performances taking place on 16, 18, and 20 November 2021. This is a proudly in-house Cape Town Opera production, with the lead roles played by members of the Young Artist Programme
It is a year of exciting collaborations for Cape Town Opera (CTO), including the involvement of six visual artists to create a series of posters for each of the company’s main productions. It was a conversation between CTO Artistic Director Matthew Wild and Norval Foundation
A familiar fairytale is getting an exciting makeover this year as Cape Town Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel premieres at Artscape in April 2021. The production brings together a world-class team, including the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Kazem Abdullah, and visual design
If you go into the woods… In his first live theatre collaboration, photographer Roger Ballen will plumb the psychological depths of a familiar fairy tale, designing a unique visual world for Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Globally renowned artist-photographer Roger Ballen has been taking
The manner in which Africa’s premier opera company has thrived during a year that savaged the performing arts is in many ways a clue to Cape Town Opera’s ongoing success during its first 21 years of existence. Robust, powerhouse, attention-grabbing, world-famous… South Africa has become
Cape Town Opera’s upcoming production: The Scars of our Heroes – Imivumba YamaQhawe, which incorporates the story of the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, is not the company’s first commitment to promoting a love of music and opera among the youth. This venture has
Established in 1999, Cape Town Opera is the only opera company in Africa with a year-round programme. The award-winning Cape Town Opera Chorus is world renowned, and will return to the RMB Starlight Classics stage this March. Not for nothing is Cape Town Opera (CTO)’s Chorus
Cape Town Opera’s Youth Development and Education Department recently embarked on an evocative new project with young learners in Khayelitsha and Stellenbosch: The People of Nyalashishi (a fictitious place, meaning ‘People of the Soil’). The new musical production evoked memories and stories of San and
Cape Town Opera (CTO), in association with Wales Millennium Centre, joins Naspers and Artscape to celebrate the Mandela Centenary with two concert performances of the widely travelled Mandela Trilogy at the Artscape Opera House. Thato Machona, Musanete Sakupwanya and Aubrey Lodewyk star as
Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column written by Ismail Mahomed, CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation. When South African theatre maker Jenine Collocott produced her play, Making Mandela, in 2015, one of South Africa’s most significant theatre reviewers, Robyn Sassen, wrote on her blog, ‘Telling Mandela’s story to
Gauteng Opera feels privileged that they received a second chance of survival. This comes in the wake of recent threat of closure due to financial difficulties which required us to either make a concerted effort to raise sufficient funds to ensure the continuation of our
Between Table Mountain and Table Bay, the City of Cape Town boasts a cosmopolitan mix of historic and modern landmarks. One of these is Artscape Theatre Centre on the Foreshore, home to the Artscape performing arts company. Established 40 years ago as the
The Market Theatre Foundation’s Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award is barely five years old and already all its winners are taking the South African industry by storm as they continue to celebrate the indomitable spirit of the late artist, teacher and cultural activist, Sophie Mgcina.
RMB Starlight Classics takes place on 2 and 3 March at Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West. This Afro Symphonic tribute to our beautiful country brings together a collection of diverse musical talent and incredible instrumentalists, with a visionary selection of young talent.
The 6th Unisa International Voice Competition has ended on a historical note with French vocalist Cynthia Abraham announced as the first winner of the Jazz Voice Category and Cecilia Rangwanasha who was the first South African classical singer to win a Unisa International Voice Competition.